>> brian: tomorrow's show, we'll have geraldo rivera and peter johnson, jr. both on the same show. >> steve: big show. >> gretchen: as usual on friday, geraldo is always here and it can get firey from time to time. 8:00 o'clock eastern time. >> steve: bob massi will be in the after the show show. log on now. see you tomorrow. good-bye. bill: play ball, america. only this is the other sport. fox news alert. america's long national nightmare is apparently over. the nfl reaching a tentative deal with its real referees about 48 hours after the debacle on monday night. three weeks of blown calls and confusion on the field of america's game. the real refs replace the replacements as of tonight's game between the cleveland browns and baltimore ravens in baltimore. live report on the deal what the refs will get. whether or not monday night's game made everybody blink including the league. meantime this is our lead story this morning a showdown at the united nations as we await two of

the most highly anticipated speeches of the entire week at the u.n. general assembly. israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu. palestinian president mahmoud abbas both scheduled to speak a few hours from now. we await the headline which one already this morning. i'm bill hemmer. martha: i'm martha maccallum. mahmoud abbas is expected to recognize the state of palestine will netanyahu will push action on iran. it was a 24 hours ago president mahmoud ahmadinejad stood in the same spot. he lashed out against israel and the united states. >> translator: the current abysmal situation of the world and history due mainly to the wrong management of the world and the self-proclaimed centers of power who have entrusted themselves to the devil. bill: david lee miller now is live at the u.n. and what

can we expect to hear from the israeli prime minister after he left israel late yesterday? david lee, good morning there. >> reporter: good morning, bill. it is expect the by many that israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu will essentially put forth the argument where the red line should be for military action against iran if in the eyes of israel and its allies that country continues to try to enrich enough uranium sufficient to make a nuclear bomb. netanyahu reacted earlier to the speech yesterday by mahmoud ahmadinejad, the iranian president, who spoke on the holiest day of the jewish year, yom kippur. the israeli prime minister said and i quote him, on this day we pray to be inscribed in the book life a platform was given dictatorial regime that strives at every opportunity to sentence us to death. netanyahu said, if not stopped, bill, iran could have a sufficient supply of enriched-uranium to produce

a bomb by early 2013. bill: that may change the entire story. who else will speak today, david lee? >> reporter: as we just heard we do expect to hear from the palestinian authority president mahmoud abbas. it is expected that he is going to call for the palestinian authority to have its status upgraded at the united nations to a nonvoting state. in order for that to happen that would require a simple majority vote in the general assembly. you might recall just last year he said he would call for the palestinian authority to become a full member of the united nations. that would have required a street in the security council. that support was not there. that vote never happened. lowered the bar this year. it will be interesting to see if in fact this vote in the general assembly does take place. if it does, it is expected not to happen until after the u.s. elections. very quickly we also expect to hear today from the president of libya and his

speech, bill, should be a very stark contrast to what we heard in the past from the qaddafi who was famous for his lengthy rants at the u.s. podium. today we expect he will speak about libya's friendship with the united states. bill: there is so much to cover over there. keep us posted on the headlines. david lee miller at the u.n. thank you. martha. martha: as david lee was just mentioning we'll see the interim president of libya speak today at the u.n. as the obama administration explanation of the attack in benghazi continues to einvolve this morning. secretary of state hillary clinton suggesting in a gathering of world leaders that the attack was the work of an al qaeda affiliate. the secretary saying this. now with a larger safe haven and increased freedom to maneuver, terrorists are seeking to extend their reach and networks in multiple directions. they're working with other violent extremists to undermined the democratic transitions underway in north africa as we

tragically saw in benghazi. that is the first time secretary clinton acknowledged al qaeda as possibly playing a role in that attack. we'll have more on that coming up. a group of senators are now demanding that susan rice, america's ambassador to the u.n., provide more answers what happened in benghazi. new hampshire senator, kelly ayotte one of those four senators who sent a scathing letter to ambassador susan rice, she will be here to tell us first-hand what that is all about. bill: meantime the violence in syria getting worse by the day. a pair of massive explosions rocking the capital city of damascus. just watch here. that looks like surveillance video there. state television saying that rebel fighters attacked a militariry compound. one of a series of increasingly bold attacks in their efforts to out of president assad. the car bombs shown here shattering windows. they could be heard from

miles around. a three-hour gunfight followed. four syrian guards and an iranian tv reporter reportedly killed as a result of that. martha: all right. let's take it back here at home for a minute and talk a little bit about the economy because we've got a lot of new numbers that have come in that are giving us a better read on the health of the u.s. economy. u.s. weekly jobless claims fell by 26,000 to 359 people. fueling a modest improvement in the unemployment picture. while numbers on the gdp are pretty rough. they show that the economy is still indeed very sluggish. and that's where we start with stuart varney, host of "varney & company" on the fox business network. stuart, that gdp number is a downward revision and it is a very rough picture in terms of growth. >> yes. it means that america's economy right now is at stall speed, going nowhere, extremely low rate of growth. think about it, martha. we've come from 4% growth at the end of last year, 2 1/2%

growth at the beginning of this year. now we're down to just 1.3% growth. that is it. i think that stall speed for america's economy. less consumer spending, less business investment, in the april through june quarter. i've got another number for you that also confirms a very weak economy. durable goods orders, big-ticket items like cars, trucks machinery, and planes, down 13.2% in the latest period. that's the lowest order book for factories all the way back to twine. so when you add it all up, we're at stall speed. feels like we're going into recession and to a majority of people, it feels like we are in a recession already. very rough numbers today, martha. martha: indeed they are. and as you point out, sort of how people feel about the economy is, i always say a very individual experience, you know. but when you look at these numbers it spell as pretty tough scenario for growth in the united states of america.

1.3 is a paltry number in terms of growth. let's talk a little bit about the unemployment number. every thursday we get the weekly read on that. what is your take on that one? >> we are down. last week 385,000 jobless claims. by the way that was revised upward as they do these days. always revising last week's number up. this week's number, 359. okay, that is lower but it's still a very high rate of firings, of layoffs. 359,000, three years after a recession ended. that's a far too high a number. it should be much more like 250,000 jobless benefit claims, not 359. shouldn't be that high. martha: new waves of layoffs at bank of america, american airlines, among others. they do keep coming. thank you very much. stuart varney coming up in a little while on fbn. meantime since december of 2007, u.s. weekly jobless claims, let's look at the

big picture, they have stubbornly stayed above 300,000. and they spiked in early 2009 as you see pretty clearly on the chart. economists say weekly claims must consistently fall below 375,000 shown by the yellow line. you see it has been you hadding the yellow line past several months. that would indicate once we get below it we're in a strong environment and adding jobs. this new report shows last week's 359,000 claims dipped below that line. if it were to keep going in that direction, you would have something to talk about. bill: stuart points out we have never been in this place before economically speaking. what could be a significant story over the coming months, early voting gets underway in a key battleground state, the state of iowa. six electoral votes at stake. voters can cast their ballots absentee or in person. governor romney visited the state six times in the past week. poured millions of television ads as the president's team. martha: there is early

voting happening soon in virginia. we find that to be the center of the pitical universe for both of these campaigns. both are holding events. governor mitt romney attends a rally in springfield while president obama makes remarks today in virginia beach. 13 electoral votes in virginia up for grabs. president obama took that state, first time in a long time a democrat had done that. republicans trying to win it back on the road to 270. bill: watch virginia. we'll be there in couple weeks. talked about ohio yesterday. in the meantime we're just getting started. small business owners speaking out about their future and their plans. what they are saying what they would and would not do in today's economy and who is to blame for it. that is coming up. martha: serious concerns about possible flawed polling in the race for the white house. the critics argue the polls may be skewed in the president's favor. we'll break this down when we come back. >> look, it was not easy to dig out the numbers. they're not printed in the pages of new york tiles. you have to go in the

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martha: here we go again, folks. there is a new tip that revived the decades long search for jimmy hoffa. the teamsters boss disappeared in 1975. now police are planning to dig up a michigan driveway because a man claims he saw someone burying a body there many years ago, okay? neighbors and police alike are skeptical. >> this is just a nice, quiet little neighborhood. we're one block from the police station. i'm surprised someone would want to bury someone in their backyard there. >> not saying this is jimmy hoffa. we're saying there is possibly a body intered in this area. around the same time frame that mr. hoffa disappeared. the time frame is off. we do not believe it is jimmy hoffa. martha: we'll see. the last time jimmy hoffa was seen in detroit. the search for his body led

police from the end zone of giants stadium, remember that one, to a horse farm in michigan. we'll keep you posted. bill: i thought he was at burger king drive through. serious news. a group group of top senators demanding answering on the deadly attack in benghazi after two weeks of ever changing stories from the administration. they sent a letter to susan rice, ambassador to the u.n., reading in part. we look forward to a timely response to explain how the u.n. ambassador to the united nations could characterize an attack on u.s. consulate so inaccurately five day after the attack killed four americans. kelly ayotte, one of the four senators that signed that letter and senator, good morning to you. >> good morning, to you, bill. bill: i want to get through the material back and forth as we go through it. do you have any information as to whether or not the fbi is on the ground in benghazi, libya, going through the consulate or not? >> it is not clear they're

on the ground today, i don't know the answer to that. i can tell you a week after the incident they were not on the ground in benghazi. they were in neighboring tripoli. they were not where the crime scene was. that is deeply troubling fact. how can they not investigate the incident if they're not occurring the crime scene. that usually has to occur right after the event. i would hope they're there now. bill: what does that suggest if they are not? >> i don't know how you can do a full investigation if you can't be there to secure evidence at the scene and to be right where the event occurred to ask questions. my background as a prosecutor and i can tell you the first thing that you need to do is right at the beginning of the event you have to get the accounts, you've got to make sure the evidence is secure. the fact they haven't been there is deeply troubling. bill: could it be it is still not safe? >> well it could be that that suggests that. obviously there has to be a reason why our fbi didn't go there immediately and, that would also suggest that in contradiction to what ambassador susan rice said on every sunday show she

first went on the incident this of course was not a spontaneous reaction to a video. those comments were deeply troubling. that's why we wrote the letter. i have to tell you with the comments she made on those sunday shows that was either incompetence or blatantly misleading the american people. bill: was she lying? >> i have to tell you, i would think, again i think it is misleading the american people. we knew at the time obviously that the attackers she knew had came with rpg's, diesel cannisters. it was september 11. al qaeda issued a video before 9/11 crying out over the death of his second in charge who was a libyan terrorist and warning and calling for terrorist attacks. so that should have been warning enough. of course there had been several incidents in libya in may and june on the red cross the british ambassador to libya as well as our own compound that should have given them warning that this

type of event is coming. we've got to get to the bottom of this to get a full accounting of it. bill: you are convinced this was terrorism and in the end you may be exactly right about that. hillary clinton came a step closer to calling it just that. she was quoted in saying working with other in reference to extremist groups in north africa, working with violent extremists to undermined the democratic transitions in northern africa as we tragically saw in benghazi. is that about as close as she has come and what do you make of that? >> what i make of it yesterday she said she believed there was a link between al qaeda in north africa and this incident. obviously anything involving al qaeda would wreak of a terrorist incident and of course what we see is ever-changing stories from this administration. it goes again to the initial story that the administration told claiming that it was a spontaneous reaction. we now know that the facts really contradict that story and that it does look from the evidence, of course the

libyan president himself has called it a terrorist attack and you would think that the libyans would be privy to some of the information to be able to tell us what type of event it was. bill: we'll see what the libyan president says in address to the united nations. you have written this letter, you expect answers. when do you expect to get them? >> we expect answers right away. i tell you participated in the briefing last week. that briefing was totally inaccurate. i got more information from "the new york times" than from our own information. i think they're reluctant to tell us what this event really was probably because it was an election year but the american people deserve to know answers about what happened at our embassy in libya and of course to those brave americans. bill: just yesterday "the new york times" wrote, the administration is evolving at times muddled explanation. i think you would agree with that? >> i would fully agree with that description. bill: senator, thank you for your time. kelly ayotte in manchester, new hampshire. 19 past. martha? martha: well, bill, amazing the difference that one botched play can make,

right? the real nfl refs after all of that are back. less than 48 hours after that debacle, there is the picture of it. look at two conflicting symbols from the refs there. details how the deal came down. so many fans will be happy to see those men back in stripes. bill: now we'll see how they do, right? we'll really be watching them. so many hurdles a candidate must face in a race. major traffic jam in key state before the first big debate where the campaigns will have their hands full. we'll show you.

bill: the two men vying for the white house might have trouble winning over voters in a major city because a main arterry through denver will be shut down while the candidates are in town for the first debate. the road closures near a university of denver arena where the debate is being held, locals and students expect a complete disaster they say. >> we have to go around. it is a real big pain in the butt for students. >> we'll bank on quite a bit of foot traffic in the area. if roads do close maybe people want to sit down and have some food or have a couple of beers. bill: that guy may not leave the bar the stretch of i-25 closed in both directions from 5:00 to 10:00 p.m. for full and comprehensive coverage next wednesday night, where else would you go? martha: nowhere. bill: keep it right here. martha: good stuff. looking forward to that night. that botched call on "monday night football" will the last time we see these guys now affection atly known as replacements.

real professionals will be back in time for the tonight's browns and ravens game in baltimore. after the refs reached a tentative agreement to end the lockout. what has been a series of bad miscues and blown calls. rick leventhal watching this closely no doubt and joins from us the newsroom this morning. rick, maybe it is good that happened on monday night. certainly not good for the packers in the long term but prompted some change. >> reporter: it did, martha. the nfl's reputation was getting smacked around. the league's office tells me there is no bigger fan than commissioner roger goodell who was determined to get a deal done after the game ending debacle monday night. you probably seen the images of a bad call turning an interception into a touchdown stealing a win from the packers. they spent 15 hours in negotiations tuesday and 15 more hours yesterday. helping two sides strike eight-year deal. longest ever for the ref with pension and retirement benefits and well-paying salaries for part-time work. last year's average was

149,000. it goes to 173,000 next year. rising to an average of $205,000 in 2019. commissioner roger goodell says we look forward to having the finest officials in sports back on the field. i want to give a special thanks to nfl fans for their passion. now time to put focus back on the teams and players where it belong. the deal is expected to be ratified friday and saturday but regular crews will be on the field tonight between the ravens and browns in baltimore. martha: what is reaction from players and owners? >> reporter: many are thrilled. many taking to twitter. indianapolis colts owner wrote, let's be clear when our nfl fans talk we listen. if you're unhappy we're unhappy. we're here to serve you. everything we do is to please you. bills running back, cj spiller said, welcome back refs in caps.

fans are ecstatic until the real refs make the first bad you will call. martha, nfl tells me some of the replacement refs could be part of a training and development program and will possibly fish eight future nfl games. martha: main maybe training and development will help and when they come back they will be in different positions to make the calls. all the love and affection, i'm looking that everybody give the hugs a big hug until they make the first call. >> reporter: before the game and then the boos will start. martha: thanks a lot, rick leventhal. bill: i give it two minutes. those guys have to be in shape too. you don't come off the couch and go right on the field. you go up and down. one. refs tweeted when he heard the deal was done dropped to the floor to do pushups. probably good advice. martha: that's what we have to do for our job, pushups every morning. bill: new polling numbers show president obama ahead in critical swing states. there are questions whether or not those polls have a bias.

a what's the story? we'll talk to a pollster and find out for you. martha: will israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu get any help from the united nations to help stop iran from its march towards a nuclear weapon? we'll talk to former israeli ambassador dan gillerman. tell us what you think about all this. send me a tweet t to@martha maccallum. your anti-? join the counter revolution and switch to olay pro-x. achieve anti-aging results so you look up to 12 years younger. see results in 28 days. guaranteed or your money back. olay pro-x. guaranteed or your money back. every room deserves to look us what our great.te color is?

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martha: new accusations of polling bias in favor of president obama coming from both republicans and democrats today. critics raising questions dies after a series of new poles show president obama with a significant lead in several key swing states. the romney campaign quickly responded casting doubt on those numbers. here's what they said. >> it is not consistent with our polling, steve. i'm struck by a couple things. one three swing state polls out today. in every sipping gel one of them they have a democratic voter participation that is higher than the participation in the electorate in 2008. i don't know anyone on the ground in any of these swing states who believes that there will be a higher democratic percentage of the electorate in 2012 than there was in 2008. martha: doug schoen, former pollster to president bill clinton. monica crowley, radio talk show host. both fox news contributors. good to have you this morning. hi, there. is that true, doug? i mean that they're skewing,

that they're showing higher turnout, those polls are assuming a higher democratic turnout now than in '08 when we know it was huge? >> yes, that is correct. that is part of the story and only part of the story. martha: okay. >> the obama lead is a real one. it is not a lead that would disappear if the polls were weighted in a slightly different direction. but that being said, in the state of ohio, for example, where they have a plus 8 democratic skew, in 2004 it, was a plus 5 republican skew. now i don't expect that we're going to go back as far as we did in '04, martha, but i do think that a 3, 4, 5, point democratic bulk would be right, that means the obama lead woo come down 3, 4, 5 points. there is some bias. obama is still ahead nonetheless. martha: lots to talk about here. monica, there are those who would look at this situation and all the outcry over the

polls and say, when you're having a problem you will suddenly say that the polls are skewed. >> yeah. no, but i agree with doug. look, there are a couple things going on here. a lot of these polls are oversampling democrats as doug pointed out and overestimating the democratic turn grout they're saying democratic turnout will be greater than two thought and as doug says nobody believes that will be the case. there are a couple of things that these pollsters are missing that point to the enthusiasm gap that does point to republican advantage. look, early voter registration in a lot of these key states, including colorado show a republican advantage and early voting in some of these states including ohio now shows that the republicans now in terms of early voting are outpacing democrats. that is not being taken into account in a lot of these polls. but doug is right to say that we have to deal in reality, and reality is obama may not have this kind of substantial lead but he

certainly is leading. i think team romney now understands that. we're five weeks away from the campaign, from the election, rather, and what you're seeing from the romney campaign is a real focus. five weeks away. obama is leading. by at least a little bit anyway, if not tied. so this really does focus the romney team's mind. martha: which brings up a great point, doug. psychologically, what is the impact of seeing these numbers which we have all been used to seeing neck-and-neck throughout the process? you suddenly see these big swings where looks like president obama is leading by a lot. it does a couple things. it may motivate and put fire under the romney campaign but also may make democrats overconfident. >> well, i think it also could, well create some enthusiasm for the democrats. that's not a partisan statement. martha: could be. >> it could also, martha, and this is something that i think monica would agree with me, donors are particularly sensitive to the polls. the so-called smart money. and what i am concerned about is if the romney

financial base takes these polls as a given, which i don't think they should, it could depress contributions at a time when the obama campaign in swing states for reasons i'm not entirely sure why, are actually outspending governor romney and that is one of the reasons why obama is doing as well as he is in all the swing states. martha: what do you think about that, monica? >> well, that could be true. nobody really knows quite yet but it also, we could be witnessing the opposite effect. in other words these polls could be motivating a republican donors and the motivating republican base and independent voters now we believe we have to work that much harder. so while i do think that the enthusiasm gap does advantage republicans, if they take the polls at face value you will actually see a greater enthusiasm gap. if they believe they are that far behind they will come out in droves and actually i think money will start to flow in earnest. martha: it is interesting. article reading other day about the carter-reagan election, it outlined 10

articles written in 10 different states, most of them battleground states even then and it showed all of these articles that were written about how carter was way ahead. carter was way ahead across the board in all places. history is always sort of a good way to put these in perspective, doug. >> well, i must say the obama people, and i'm pretty sure of this, are not, not taking these polls as a statement of where the race is. they understand what you're saying martha is exactly right. they're worried about what monica was hypothesizing. bottom line, when the president's job approval is at best, 50%, deep, deep dissatisfaction with the economy, the obama people are as afraid as they should be of a swing to governor romney at the end. it is certainly not outside the possibility with the first debate coming up next week. martha: some would say that, there's not a lot of time left. governor romney said things are just getting started in his mind the other day. so debates are ahead and all of that to weigh in before

people go to the polls. thank you so much, monica, doug, good to see you both. >> thanks, martha. martha: okay. bill: quick check of the markets right now we're trading up which is the first time we've been doing that all week up about 55 points in early minutes of the dow. 30 on wall street a jobs number out short time ago, showed a better jump for us. better drop. more than 25,000. we'll see how that works in the mix as we go forward throughout the day. 9:30 here in new york. martha: well, it could be a game-changer. less than a week to the presidential debate, the first one why karl rove says president obama's biggest opponent is not mitt romney in his opinion but the truth. carl on that. >> also on a bombshell report on the deadly attack on the u.s. consulate in libya. libyan officials were aware of al qaeda link in 24 hours? why did it take nearly two weeks for them to admit it? good question. >> what happened initially it was a spontaneous reaction to what had transpired in cairo as a

consequence of the video that people gathered outside the embassy and then it grew very violent. ♪

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so let's talk about coverage. based on this chart, who would you choose ? wow. you guys take a minute. zon, hands down. i'm going to show you guys another chart. pretty obvious. i don't think color matters. pretty obvious. what'sretty obvious about it ? that verizon has the coverage. verizon. verizon. we're going to go to another chart. it doesn't really matter how you present it. it doesn't matter how you present it. verizon. more 4g lte coverage than all other networks combined.

bill: back on the trail, 40 days before america votes according to karl rove, president obama's biggest opponent in the campaign might be the truth of the president bush's former deputy chief of staff and currently a fox news contributor among other things saying the president is not honest about his opponent or his own record. governor romney was asked about learned as president obama as debater. he said the following to abc. i think he will say a lot of things that are not accurate. end quote. stephen hayes, senior writer, "weekly standard." fox news contributor. good morning to you. he is writing about the truth squad. what is his allegation. >> he basically says the president sometimes plays fast and loose with the truth when makes claims in defense of his own record and making allegations about

mitt romney, his record and the way he has run his campaign. bill: give me an example. what has he said in a battle ground state or what as he said on a tv ad that has been disapproved? >> he made a claim that got four pinnochios from "the washington post" yesterday that 90% of the debt was run up under his predecessor. the david letterman interview that president obama gave last week on the debt and deficits was a veritable panoply of things that were at least misleading, and often just flat-out untrue. i think the president didn't get called on it. there were many more misleading statements in the 10 minute interview that president obama gave david letterman than anything in paul ryan's speech which as we saw led to the this explosion of fact-checking. bill: don't all politicians kind of take the truth and bend it a little bit, stretch it out for their own advantage? >> yes. that is an understatement. they do it all the time. everybody on all sides does it.

and i think, you know, to a certain extent the romney campaign has to be a little careful not caught up in just being fact checkers, but at the same time calling the president out on his excesses. when he is say things about governor romney that aren't true. bill: rove takes it a step further because he writes about serial dishonesty. that is the phrase he uses in his piece. how do you think romney has responded to date? >> i think they have done a pretty good job. i think the campaign found that delicate balance calling president on things he said that might be exaggerating or misleading governor romney's record but not obsessing about it. i think particularly in the upcoming debates, governor romney himself, it is important that he call the president out if the president is misrepresenting his record or what he has done or things on the campaign trail. but he can't allow himself to be suckered in to the fact checker in chief and going tit-for-tat at that time on every single allegation the president

makes. romney's job is much bigger. he needs to present a vision and alternative. bill: if president is saying something that is not true, why not challenge him? >> he should challenge him. he can't be suckered into challenging every little thing. this is debate tactic. debaters in presidential debates where you say something misleading to go ahead your opponent getting into a long back and forth. and for the reason you suggest, bill, voters sitting at home they often don't know who to believe. if it become as shouting match, a low pitched shouting match over one fact or another, voters are not going to be dissuade about that. voters will be per saided by a big overarching vision and a direction for the country. bill: here is from the article in the "wall street journal" candidates always have disagreements arguing over meaning of events or evidence but mr. obama has taken ordinary political differences beyond anything we've seen. every day he attempts to diss qualify his opponent through deliberate and undeniable falsehoods.

strong language from him. he goes on to write you can't just call the president a liar because that could backfire. that is your point. >> that is very true. if i were advising governor romney i would use the administration's story what happened in benghazi. this has been a string of misleading statements virtually every single one of which had to be recalled or recanted now that we understand the whole story and the problem is, it is clearer and clearer every single day that the administration actually had the real story from the get-go. they knew it was an attack. they knew there were al qaeda links. there was no mob. yet it is not just that the administration we don't know what has happened, we want to refrain from commenting. they said here's exactly what happened. it was a mob that spun out of control. this is sort of the kind of thing that karl was talking about and the kind of thing that the romney campaign could challenge. bill: as long as that story is out there, and based on the reporting today it will be with us for a while to come. one of these debates go

directly to foreign policy, one would think that the first question that the debate will be exactly about benghazi? >> i would think so. if i were governor romney i would turn to president obama and ask him directly, why were you so reluctant to call this a terrorist attack two weeks after the intelligence agencies and senior pentagon officials had identified it as such? formally identified as a terrorist attack from the very beginning. and you went asked on "the view" directly was this a terrorist attack, wouldn't answer the question. that is fair question for governor romney. then he has to poif have the to a broader argument, a bigger critique of president obama and american leadership. bill: there will be a lot more to be said in the coming five or six days. debate number one. steve hayes, thank you. to viewers at home go to foxnews.com /americasnewsroom. there is a bya box. leave a question about what you would like asked during the debates.

read twitter from bill hemmer. martha: he believes the attacks has spiked and the president is now engaged in character assassination against him. we'll get reaction from the romney campaign. that's coming up. bill: a revealing new poll on the backbone of america's economy. what a majority of small business owners are saying and why it is bad news possibly for the white house.

martha: an outcry from small business in america. a new study that has just

come out that 55% of small business owners say they could never build their businesses in the current administration client. they're blaming excessive regulation and more. get into this with fox business network's charles payne. good morning. good to have you here. this probably doesn't surprise you, does it? >> doesn't surprise me, martha. in fact i've been screaming about this for a long period of time. entrepreneurship in this country is at such a low, mind-boggling low you really begin to worry about the future. entrepreneurship obviously is where we ultimately get the apples of the world, where we get innovations that create amazing amount of jobs but change our lives more often than not for the better. this is extraordinarily alarming. i hope thises out there someone who could make a difference hears there and takes the action. martha: your friend stuart varney told me when he first started a small business many years ago in california he had to fill out a one

sheet of paper to start the business. no way you can do that now. you have to fill out reams and reams of regulations and paper and go through all kinds of red tape. one number jump manies out at me. 54% say china and india are more supportive of entrepreneurs and business than we are. >> well, listen, and, believe it or not, there are a whole lot of other names that would be on that list that would really blow you away. with respect to competitiveness we're falling big-time. with respect to embracing entrepreneurship, we're falling big-time. i think only, you know what? our tax rate, in fact are higher than cuba. we have the highest tax rate in the world. we've got federal regulations, state regulations, local regulations. really has been this administration's war on business. and it is a war on big business per se but casualtys small businesses. big businesses can hire army of lawyers. their lawyers versus the president's 38 czars and rules and regulations and

dodd-frank. it is little guy. spoke to stuart when he started his business. i started my business with less than $10,000. i couldn't do that now. in the stock market, there is no way in the world you could do that. martha: i was reading comments you made at a speaking engagement not long ago. you outline and give examples of individuals who come to america and start businesses. they say, you know, that they have, they have so much gumption for lack of a better word. they say there are too many people don't have that understanding of how good they have it in many ways. >> that is the flipside too, martha. i'm glad you brought that up. that was in vegas a couple weeks ago. i've been crying, not crying but warning about the dropout nation. we dropped out of owning homes. we dropped out looking for jobs and getting married and stopped believing. people come from the country from other nations, when i was in vegas someone from italy, someone from belize and someone from the philippines. they all became here and became citizens and started

citizens the guy from belize became a citizen last year and started a business and has five employees. regulations make it difficult and dissuade a lot of people. a lot of other people who have zero chance in their countries come here, you know what? i will climb the mountain. unfortunately shouldn't be a mountain. should be a molehill. should be easy to start a business in this country and people should be encouraged. martha: 69% of people say administration regulation dissuade them from doing that. get out there and buy a business and get married and read a book according to charles payne. >> absolutely. do it all today too. martha: exactly. bill: we have news from campbell's soup. campbell's soup, on a day when unemployment increased slightly, campbell's soup is lay of off 10% of the its workforce. closing a plant in sacramento, 700 workers there. closing a plant in new jersey. there is crossing by way of

campbell soup in new jersey. there is also this. in a fox news alert. breaking word from our own bret baier out of washington. on day one, bret reports that u.s. intel officials knew it was an a terrorist attack and actively hunting down what they believed to be al qaeda elements in benghazi, eastern libya. they were looking for one specific person. they labeled it terrorism from day one to get a policy response. it was internally labeled that terror. this is before susan rice went on the sunday shows, all five of them. there has not been a single fbi agent bret reports on the ground in benghazi as of this day today. more on the breaking news right after the break here on "america's newsroom."

martha: a bombshell report that is just coming in this morning, and that is that u.s. intelligence officials labeled the libya consulate attack aster or 24 hours after it happened.

this is just the beginning, tip of the iceberg this morning on a brand-new hour of "america's newsroom." i'm martha maccallum. bill: i'm bill hemmer. good morning. secretary of state hillary clinton is suggesting for the first time that the ambush was the work of terrorists in north africa. martha: we are learning way before susan rice went on all of the sunday sws to say the attack was responsible taeupb yan anresponsible tan just, prompted by the crowds in benghazi, they were labeling it a crime of tere rims terrorism that proves the white house was misleading americans. >> in contradiction to what susan rice said, on every show, that this was a course not a spontaneous reaction to a video those comments were deeply troubling, that's why we wrote the letter. with the comments she made on the sunday shows, that was

either incompetence or blatantly misleading the american people. martha: joined by bret baier of special report. just breaking this news for us, good morning. what are you learning, what its latest? >> two u.s. officials confirm to fox that the u.s. government, the obama administration knew within 24 hours of this attack in benghazi that terrorism was the cause, in fact they were looking for al-qaida as possible suspects, and they believed they had a good beat on a couple of possible suspects that were behind the attack. terrorism was the cause. they labeled it as such. the u.s. government labeled it terrorism in order to unlook the resources needed to mobilize response quicker. again, let's review this. in order to respond quickly to something that is happening and

this u.s. ambassador getting killed in libya the government labels it terrorism, and this is before ambassador susan rice goes out and says it was a span taeupb jusa spontaneous event, there never was a real crowd in front of the benghazi consulate. then we heard that developments -- as we everee been talking about, and the president really has never publicly said that it was terrorism. yesterday jay carney said the president believed it was a terrorist attack but the president hasn't said that. we can report within the first 24 hours the government labeled it as such and believed that al-qaida in libya, and the specific group, ansal sharia, and magraab was responsible. secondly, we can also confirm that u.s. officials say that 16

days after this attack not a single f.b.i. agent has been within the city limits of benghazi. martha: i think a lot of people are going to find this incredible, and there are so many questions to address here. the first one that comes to mind, brett, is what possible reason would you have for sending susan rice out there to say that this was a spontaneous attack, they were basically tripping over themselves in the administration to talk about this movie, that they were opposed to it, they found it reprehensible, every other word in the book. you have one hand waiving over here which was disconnected from what they already knew, which should have been an immediate investigation into al-qaida on the ground there that killed four american citizens. >> there are multiple explanations possibly. you have a republican senator calling it a cover up. you have several senators that

are calling susan rice directly and you had senate ayotte on for an explanation. she would have if she had an intelligence brief of any level known that the government in avenue itself would have had to have listedde fox news analyst edit as terrorist eupl at that point to unlock the resources to investigate the attack. she should have known before she went to those five sunday shows. i think the investigation, we are just starting to peel back the early parts of it. >> if you're susan rice or robert gibbs they want to know the answers as to why they were sent out to say those thing as well. you really wonder why you didn't hear from clapper, from head of the dni, from john brennan, why were these not the people put forth to talk about this. one other issue i want to bring up in all of this is the question of our c.i.a. operation

that was gathering intelligence on the ground there and how compromised according to reports all of that has become our ambassador in this location was not secure, and so much has now unraveled apparently because of that oversight. >> yeah, i mean we've reported extensively about al-qaida and how much they were expanding in libya. and how concerned the u.s. government and the intelligence community was about that before this attack. and to that end the c.i.a. had many assets on the ground trying to get a grip of what was happening. well after this attack and because of this attack and all the fallout from it, all of that reportedly has been removed, and so according to one official the eyes have been poked out. so our ability to know and see what is going on about the extension of al-qaida in one of the most crucial places in the world in the war on terror is

being compromised. i will give, one thing really quickly. olivia knox with yahoo news first on september 20th tweeted out that the administration knew from day one trying to pin down he said in a tweet that they formally said it was terrorism to unlock, this is what he said, all the resources needed formally labeling it tere rims. it's amazing what twitter does. looking back i want to give him credit on day -- september 20th for putting that out there. steve hayes has a great thing coming out in the "weekly standard" that goes through all of the comments as we continue to peel back this onion. martha: even if that were the case that they didn't want to talk about it at that point they could have said that, we are still figuring this automatic and not gone with the other thing that appears to be a red herring in any ways. we will stay on top of this and

be watching special report. bill: great reporting. if the f.b.i. still has not got even on the ground in benghazi, clearly they don't believe it's safe to go in there. so why would you allow your u.s. ambassador to enter that town without appropriate security. more questions as we move through this. bret thank you for that. seven minutes past. let's get to the trail. virginia is our stop today. president obama, governor romney crossing paths yet again. yesterday ohio, today virginia. both in virginia a swing state showing the president holding a slight lead. >> i know that they are out there khap chanting at his events, four more years. let me ask you this. do you want four more years with 23 million people struggling to find a job? do you want four more years where half our kids coming out of college can't find a college-level job? [no!] >> do you want four more years of trillion dollar deficits?

[no!] >> 13 tkreut cal electoral votes in that state. 270 needed to win the white house. john roberts is live in springfield, virginia. what is governor romney doing there today. >> easy peering at the american legion hall talking to veterans and get the support of 42 medal of horn recipients and he'll talking about the effect of looming sequestration and defense cuts in virginia. the military is all across this air, in the washington area and no fork area. it is estimated that the sequestration defense cuts could result in the loss of as many as 65,000 jobs in small businesses related to the defense industry. this election campaign continues to be all about ohio and the jobs. governor romney is saying he is the one best positioned to help out the middle class, obama hammering romney for a lack of detail in his economic and tax plan, have a listen. >> no matter how many times they try to tell you they are going

to start talking specifics really soon, they don't do it. and the reason is because the math doesn't work. >> the american family, middle income families are having a hard time. look, i know the president cares about america and the people of this country, he just doesn't know how to help them, i do. i'll get this country going again. [cheers and applause] >> first thing this morning the romney campaign jumping on the revised gdp numbers down to 1.3% in the second quarter reaffirming its position on the campaign trail that this country can't afford another four years of barack obama. bill: bill: what is the strategy on behalf of the governor's campaign? >> reporter: you talk about defense, you talk about regular jobs, also the coal industry is a big part of the economy here, it's fallen on hard times. miners have some of the highest unemployment in the state. in the out western section of the state. the romney campaign has a new ad

out accusing the president of waging war on coal. >> if somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant it can it's just that it will bankrupt it. >> obama wages war on coal as we lose more coal every day. now your job is in danger. >> 13 electoral votes as you said at the top, bill and the "real clear politics" afternoon right now has president obama up a little more than 4 points. bill: thank you. john roberts there in virginia. a bit of background on that state now. 2008 the president won that state by about 6%, that is the first time a democrat has carried virginia since 1964. the obama camp has spent about $29 million on campaign advertising since may and team romney has spent about $16.5 million over that same period of time. virginia is getting a lot of attention. martha: indeed it is. and the controversial story about the voter rolls in florida in terms of purging those rolls

and finding out who is really registered to vote there is now complete, so what did they find? it is quite interesting, folks. stick around for that. bill: also the israeli prime minister is about to make major headlines at the united nation, set to call out iran and issue a wake-up call to the world. will the u.n. listen and what will the reaction be then? martha: a plane's landing gear malfunctions forcing the pilot to make an emergency landing, all caught on tape. what happened next, right after this. all energy development comes with some risk,

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that's one smart board. what else does it do, reverse gravity? [ laughs ] [ laughs ] [ whooshing ] tell me about it. why am i not going anywhere? you don't believe hard enough. a smarter way to shop around. now that's progressive. call or click today. [ grunting ] bill: this might make you think twice next time. a flight packed with passengers forced to make an emergency landing. watch here now, look closely. the airliner from rio apparently had a problem with its landing gear, but the pilot managed to set it down successfully at the

last moment right there at jfk airport here in new york. 190 people on board a bit shaken up said to be doing okay. apparently they said, let's go back to rio real fast. martha: the prime minister of israel, benjamin netanyahu said to urge world leaders to help crush iran's chances of building a nuclear weapon. that is his goal when he speaks before the u.n. this morning. he's also expected to urge using threats of force in order to achieve that goal and his speech comes as iranian president mahmoud ahmadinejad who spoke yesterday claimed that israel has no roots in the middle east, which as you can imagine was not warmly received. he has notoriously said that israel, he believes, should be, quote, wiped off the map. i'm joined now by ambassador dan gillerman, former israeli ambassador to the u.n., a fox news contributor and has traveled here with benjamin

netanyahu for the week. thank you for being here today. >> it's good to be with you. martha: tell us what we can expect today from benjamin netanyahu net. >> yesterday we heard an insane speech, a speech full of tie a tribedie diatribes and insane speech. i think what you will here today is a very responsible and very, very real speech that will spell out where we are at this moment in time especially after we heard yesterday. you know, martha yesterday was yom kippur the holist jewish holiday, a day of atonement. i think what the world had to do yesterday, and a longtime ago is to atone for allowing this

ranting fundamentalist perpbg into thiperson into the country and listening what he had to say. i think the world has to wake up and say, listen this to person, take him seriously. >> there have been tensions between president obama and benjamin netanyahu that there was no meeting scheduled between the two. can you confirm for us that that meeting was requested by benjamin netanyahu and what happens now? is there any chance of that happening? >> well i'm not sure a meeting was requested. i think that the prime minister is well aware of the fact that the president is on the campaign trail, and as far as i no he refused about 20 heads of state. i don't think this will be taken personally. i do, though, think that the meeting between the prime minister of israel and the president of the united states should happen, it should be a very, very important meeting, it

will probably be the most crucial meeting between the prime minister of israel and the president of the united states ever, because what we have is the destiny of the jewish people and in fact of civilization as we know it and want it to continue. and the fact that iran its on this quest for nuclear weapons is something which those two leaders should discuss in earnest, in private, tell each other the truth, look each other in the eye and make sure that they both understand the gravity of the situation. martha: you can't help but feel that there is a question different tone, in terms of the urgency of that. i can sense it immediately in your voice that you feel that this is a moment of crisis for the israeli people, and that something must be done now, and we heard benjamin netanyahu say, why wait? what are we waiting for exactly? so will he express today specifics about why he believes that now is the moment to act,

and if this moment is missed it could be ver per very peril us for your people. >> i imagine so. just imagine the weight on the shoulders of benjamin netanyahu. given the prime minister of israel is on any day the toughest job in the world. today being the leader of the country, which is probably the only country in the world that is literally threatened by another country that wants to wipe it off the face of the map, imagine the gaffe virginia tee, and thgravity: i had a very good sleep on the plane, i don't think the prime minister had a very good sleep. he feels the responsibility. and i imagine what he'll be take sot world is listen to that person and do something before it's too late. we've heard -- you know, we the jewish people and the world has made a store repb tuesda

horrendous price just 70 years, less than that for listening to a tkeurbgs atribe and a lunatic. we cannot afford to do that lens 70 years later. martha: we'll watch with great interest of course benjamin netanyahu r-r's speech later today. thank you sir. bill: before 1:00 you'll hear it on fox. how much of your tax dollars supports the first family? one guy says he knows. he's written a book about it. wait until you hear how much goes to the presidential staff and the perks and air force one and all that. martha: it's changed over the years years. a new critics from the campaign trail to the president's handling on the attack in libya. why congressman ryan is now pointing fingers at the administration's foreign policy. >> when we equivocate on speaking up for our values

overseas, our freedom, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom for women and women's rights and individual rights, when we do this we project weakness abroad.

martha: decades after fighting for our country a vietnam veteran is fighting to receive his social security benefits. he's 69 years old, his name is william murphy of california. he was born in the uk to an american father and says a custom's agent approved his u.s. citizenship. the social security office, however, rejected the documents that he thought he could use to prove that citizenship, including his army enlistment papers. >> now it's like, oh, well you served us, and you're just a cast away.

a lot of years just to get to where i'm at. martha: murphy's pay stub shows that he had regularly paid into the social security system. tough situation. bill: there was a new book raising questions about how many taxpayer money is spent on perks for the president and first family. according to my next guest taxpayers spent $1.4 billion last year on -rg from staffing and housing to flying and entertaining. robert gray wrote the book "presidential books gone royal, your tax dollars are being used for obama's re-election" he's former direct he shall of the reagan-bush presidential campaign. good morning to you sir. 1.4billion is a lot. how did you calculate that number? >> it wasn't easy. it took two full time research assistants and two years for us to come to that figure and even that is a guesstimate. nobody can be sure, there is no tabulation, no central place where you can get the figures about the president's expenses. that seems in itself a

problem,. bill: you go through all this research, what did you conclude? >> that the costs are out of control. not only out of control but out of tabulation. there is no one in charge, no one is responsible. the president doesn't have to ask anybody's permission for anything he spends or asks for. it's object vie -- the whole staff at camp david are see bees. if anybody can doubt any of our figures we'd like to hear about it. bill: you gave an interview to the daily caller. you said, there was no mechanism for anyone's suggestion. >> well it seems strange to me, a kid can't take a car that doesn't belong to him without asking the dad for the keys. the president of the united states could take a $600 million airplane and fly it off any time

he wants to without asking for approval, there is no check and balance, nobody is his con conscience. and that doesn't seem to guide him very much. they took air force one and all the entourage and escort plane took it to ohio to swear in local police officers. went to chicago a couple of times to shoot a few hoops as they call it to some of his chicago friends. took it to ireland to dedicate a public named in his honor. at the whim of the president he can do what he wants to do with absolutely nobody. bill: don't all presidents do this? all presidents they need security and a staff. so at what point do you think this is okay and this is not. >> of course we want our presidents to be well-taken care of, we want them when weigh land in a foreign land they with be very proud that they land in the best airplane in the world but to use it ka preurb shus lee for his own campaign is a shock and

it's something that somebody other than the president's conscience should be responsible for. bill: we get this question a lot, they want to know what the calculation for air force one. isn't there a rule about how much you have to reimburse if you're doing campaign or politics or other business. >> it's a very minuscule amount figured on the use of the plane for political purposes, the people aboard for political purposes. it's minuscule come pictured to the total cost. the truth is, if he wishes, and he seems to wish it a lot can get himself to any place in the country at any time e. was in colorado springs making campaign speeches and raising funds and he stopped by to see victims of the fire and wrote the whole thing offment it's very easy for the president to say i was there for official business. bill: i can understand what you're saying.

the figure you put is staggering $1.4 billion. i can see you're not happy with this. thank you for sharing that with us. he also sites the dog has his own high paid staff according to this book. how much a year? martha: i don't know how much. bill: $102,000. martha: to take care of beau? that's a well-taken care dog. we have come a long way from ab a gale adams hanging her laundry in one of the raofplts it puts everything in perspective a little bit. how about this growing concern in one of the most critical swing states in the 2012 election, there is a brand-new list of people who are on the rolls to vote in the sunshine state who are not supposed to be allowed to vote. so what is up with that? bill: brand-new details now on the attack in libya, fox news learning and confirming

administration labeled benghazi a terror attack only hours after it happened. the romney camp set to respond to that next.

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who have already enrolled in the only medicare supplement insurance plans endorsed by aarp, an organization serving the needs of people 50 and over for generations. remember, all medicare supplement insurance plans help cover what medicare doesn't pay. and could save you thousands a year in out-of-pocket costs. call now to request your free decision guide. and learn more about the kinds of plans that will be here for you now -- and down the road. i have a lifetime of experience. so i know how important that is. bill: fox news alert if you're just joining us we are learning new details just into "america's newsroom," bret baier confirms out of washing tops, the attack on the u.s. consulate in libya was labeled aster or in th as as tase terror in the first 24 hours of the attack. we are going to talk about

this. sir, good morning to you. we invited one of your counterparts, stephanie cutter from the obama team, we had her booked as of late last night, something else came up, so you get a corpus christi at this today. on libya what do you make of the news we're reporting now. >> i think president obama needs to be held accountable for his administration's attempts to mislead the american people about what happened in benghazi. we were initially told that this was a spontaneous demonstration in response to a video that was 0 youtube. the administration sent their ambassador to the u.n. susan rice on sunday shows to defend the position. now we are learning it was a preplanned terrorist attack conducted on the anniversary of 9/11 and that it involved elements of al-qaida. look, you know, we are not going to be able to confront the challenges that face us in the middle east if we are not honest about them.

anti-americanism is on the rise, the muslim brotherhood is in charge in egypt, and our relationship with israel is on the rocks. now as we turn the corner into the new year, because of the president's mismanagement of the budget, we are looking at devastating cuts to our defense budget. mitt romney will restore those cuts and make sure that america pursues a strategy of peace through strength and he'll make it unmistakably clear that we standby our allies like israel. bill: if this story plays out the way it appears what does it suggest what the administration's motives were in the early hours of this story? >> look, i think it's disappointing that it now appears the administration was attempting to mislead the american people about what was happening there. as i said, we can't begin to confront the challenges that face us overseas in that part of the world unless we are honest

about them. this president would prefer not to talk about this attack on benghazi being a perri a per a a tere roarist attack. but i think we need to be honest with the people in that world. bill: bill: are you saying the president was lying. >> if in fact there were early intelligence reports indicating that this was a preplanned terrorist attack and the administration was trying to persuade the american people that it was a spontaneous demonstration in response to a youtube video, then of course there does appear to be an a treatment to mislead. bill: on the battleground states on the polling they suggest that your campaign right now is trailing. what does the campaign think about that in places like florida, ohio, and virginia? >> look, we think it's a close race. it's going to be a close race right up until november 6th.

i think the obama campaign shares that opinion. i know the president has expressed it himself. some of these polls have been called into question because they aeu zoom assume a higher turn out in 2012 than we experienced in 2008. i don't know of any campaign operative or political sigh even 'tis in the country that think that democrats will show up in the same numbers as four years ago. bill: are you dismissing these polls? >> what we expect is a close race. the reason it will be a big race is we have big choices at stake here. there is a choice between governor romney's opportunity society with rising income and more jobs for everyone and a real recovery against president obama's government centric vision which has resulted in 23 million persons americans struggling to get work. bill: "politico" writes on that debate today about a do or

decision for governor romney. how do you see it? >> well, look, these debates are important, there will be three of them in the month of october. but, look, we know what we are up against. the president is an experienced speaker,er has substantial debate experience. this will be his 8th one-on-one presidential debate. it will be mitt romney's first. apparently the president is going to be in nevada for three days undergoing intensive debate preparation. what we expect he'll do at those debates, even though we have the facts and a strong pro jobs message on our side i think you'll see the president to use the opportunity to turn it into a 90-minute attack ad. mitt romney will talk about the choices that face america, that is sput terg and a real recovery he can bring. bill: i really want to get to

this. governor romney said this past week, i listened to a lot of advice but frankly i'm going to keep on my message. how challenging has that been for him or the campaign, knowing how much voices of the republican party and the conservative nature of the republican party have been so vocal themselves tph-s their criticisthemselves. how do you keep on message. >> it's like sports, people follow it closely, everybody has an opinion. today we got more disappointing economic news. gdp growth in the second quarter has slowed down to 1.3%. eventually you're going to need an electron mike crow scope to detect teu growth at all. this confirms that we are on the wrong direction as a country and america can't afford four more years like the last four years. bill: debate is six days away.

eric fernstrom, thank you, we inch slighted the obama side and they declined. martha: paul ryan slamming president's response to the deadly attacks in libya. >> i think right now you can turn on the tv and you can look at how the obama foreign policy is blowing up in our faces. martha: why congressman ryan says president obama is sending a message of weakness. bill: a pepper spray incident at a major campus, who paid what, wait for this one. bob...

oh, hey alex. just picking up some, brochures, posters copies of my acceptance speech. great! it's always good to have a backup plan, in case i get hit by a meteor. wow, your hair looks great. didn't realize they did photoshop here. hey, good call on those mugs. can't let 'em see what you're drinking. you know, i'm glad we're both running a nice, clean race. no need to get nasty. here's your "honk if you had an affair with taylor" yard sign. looks good. [ male announcer ] fedex office. now save 50% on banners. bill: they've reached a settlement in a lawsuit over a pepper spray incident, uc davis, california. university of california said to pay neay a million dollars settling the suit filed by demonstrators pepper sprayed

during an occupy protest. police say the protestors were warned that force would be used if they did not move, they did not. they did use force. under the settlement the william la jeunesse pays $31,000 to each of the 21 plaintiffs plus $251,000 to their attorneys to split. martha: fox has confirmed this morning the assault on the u.s. consulate on libya was labeled a terrorist aeu attack within 24 hours. why did the administration continue to characterize it as something else is the biggie merging question here. this as we get stinging new criticism from the campaign trail from vice-presidental nominee paul ryan. >> i think right now you can turn on the tv and you can look at how the obama foreign policy is blowing up in our faces. [applause] >> look around the world. you can see -- it looks like teheran in 1979, but in about a

dozen capitols around the world, they are burning our flags at our embassies, climbing our walls at our embassies, taking down our flags and putting up the flags of the muslim brotherhood. martha: strong assessment from paul ryan on the road. texas republican mack thorn perry joins me now, he's a senior member of the intelligence committee where no doubt you guys have been very busy as of late. welcome. what do you make of this latest information that we are reporting and confirming today that this was labeled by the administration a terrorist attack within 24 hours of what was carried out and the lost of four lives in benghazi. and second that the f.b.i. is still not on the crime scene there. >> it's very disturbing for a number of reasons. one is that it means that congress and the american people were misled and that is serious enough. but even worse it means that we're -- we weren't facing the

facts straight up so we could learn the lessons from this incident and try to prevent it from happening again. i guarantee terrorists around the world are seeing this benghazi incident as a success. they are studying it, and if we can't face up for what it is we are not going to be able to protect our diplomats around the world. and really another reason is that if we can't be clear eyed about the national security issues we face and articulate them clearly we are not going to have policies to deal with them. i remember the fuzzy thinking before 9/11 when we had the cole and the bombing in sudan and it was kind of law enforcement issues, and that helped lead to 9/11. we've got to face these facts straight up and not put political spin on it. martha: let me ask you this. i know you've been in two intel briefings about this matter. how do you feel about how it's been explained to you and how thorough they've been in sharing all these details with you?

>> i'm perplexed, because the information we got was very consistent with what they were telling the public, and that is it was a spontaneous mob that just got out of control. why the president would be so reluctant to call this a terrorist incident, why they would say this is definitely what it is when they had information to the contrary, or didn't have enough information is just beyond me. i worry from a political sense. martha: you were given the same information the american public was given on the sunday talk shows when susan rice made that appearance. you were told exactly the same thing on the intel committee. i'd be perfectly prepared for you to say to me i can't tell you what i heard in there. i'm not going to ask you that because everybody already heard it on the sunday talk shows. >> i won't tell you what i was told in any classified briefing. what i will do though is what we were told is very 0 consistent with what they were saying to the public.

it was a spontaneous mob that got out of control. if there was information a day off that was to the contrary i think congress was misled. but again it's even more serious than that, it means that we have a real problem in not being able to face up to the national security challenges our country faces, even if there is a campaign going on we need to face it straight up. martha: if i may, congressman, why? why? >> that's my point. i don't know why, other than there is a theory that the biggest success of the obama administration has been taking out osama bin laden, and perhaps they want the american people to believe we don't have to worry about terrorism any more. this splice in the face of that narrative. the traouft th truth of the matter is that al-qaida is diminished in afghanistan and pakistan but it's much more dangerous in the western sierra area which may have, as hillary clinton said yesterday may have

played a role in the benghazi attack. the world is still dangerous and no amount of political spin will make that go away. martha: i think most americans want a realistic approach and they want to be told what they can be told about this even if sometimes the answer to that is, we don't know yet, which is not what we got from the administration. >> exactly. martha: in this particular instance. thank you so much, congressman. good to talk to you. bill: two days ago we sat here and listened to the president at the u.n. and he referred to benghazi and those responsible as killers repeatedly. never once men'sed terrorism as it relates to benghazi, libya and the word terrorists gee was given that chance on the view also and you have to ask yourself why. bill: this is certain to come up. jenna lee is standing by. where have you been? jenna: i've been overseas in italy. i had a friend's wedding, it's

good to be back. there is so much news happening today. you mentioned the president speaking to the u.n., today during our hours the israeli prime minister is addressing the united nations. we'll talk about the warning he could potentially give to the world today. by the end of our show will we know what the red line is when it comes to iran? it could be a game-changer this speech. we'll have that for you. we'll have more more on the breaking news that you were talking about when it comes to libya and the white house messaging. what are the political eupl ph implications? we'll dig deeper into that. accusations of by as in the media, our news panel weighs in on how the press is affecting potentially the outcome. bill: welcome back. the president is in virginia today, there is no white house briefing but there will be one on board air force one en route in virginia. a bizarre video to test police. a man staging a terrorist stunt? not so funny, right? we'll explain. , but with advair, i'm breathing better.

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florida where the department of state has released a brand-new list of noncitizens illegally registered to vote in that state. phil keating is on that story out of miami. awfuawfully close to election day. >> rick scott and his secretary of state do believe there is time to verify this list. at this point we are now just 41 days until election day, however it was just one month ago that the u.s. justice department finally shared its immigration database with the state of florida. florida's elections department just sent us this statement, quote, we have a responsibility to uphold the integrity of our elections which means making

sure ineligible voters can't cast a ballot in florida. now, originally this summer the state's round up of noncitizens registered to vote tallied up totaling 2600 people, but that list just arrive wit rife with errors and controversy abandoned by many county election chiefs, like two world war ii veterans on the list came forward, proved they were u.s. citizens and did have a right to vote. bill: are there three lawsuits pending? >> yes, two from voting rights groups, one from the u.s. justice department, all of which accuse the republican governor and his republicans in tallahassee of targeting democrats and minorities more than republicans, and according to this latest list of 198 names, 87 are registered democrats, only 30 are republicans and almost all of

them are a vast majority in florida. bill: 29 electoral votes in your state, thank you. martha. martha: there are pressing questions over presidential polls, why critics say that the sampling of the data may point to a significant by as worth look into and talking about, a panel weighing in on that just ahead. woman 1: this isn't just another election. we're voting for...

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jenna: --. martha: don't want to see this in ire nabe hooved. is man is facing serious charges for posting a fake internet terrorist video. he sent his 16-year-old nephew into the street dressed in a sheet. look at this. point what looks like a real rocket launcher at drivers as they were going by in a busy intersection. >> we started getting numerous 911 calls. what if one of those citizens decided this person, dressed as he is with that rocket is a danger to him and decided to run over that child? martha: yeah. what if somebody decided they need to take him down in thece